


One Time Daryl Dixon Learned That Life Didn't Always Knock You Down

by IntheMoment



Category: Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-08
Updated: 2014-03-08
Packaged: 2018-01-15 01:27:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1286059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IntheMoment/pseuds/IntheMoment
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was good to know that life didn’t always have to knock you down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Time Daryl Dixon Learned That Life Didn't Always Knock You Down

**Author's Note:**

> A ficlet that began as part of a challenge to use only five lines of preselected dialogue in a story. I ended up writing an Arrow story for that, but I liked this, so I kept it. The only line of dialogue here is one from the challenge.
> 
> The first Walking Dead fic I’ve posted. Vague spoilers for S4, Episode 8: Too Far Gone. Not something that’s happened on the show, just in my own TWD universe.
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> +++||+++

They’d been arguing about whether or not people could change and before he knew it their discussion, as Rick liked to call the arguments, got heated. Didn’t happen as often as it used to, but sometimes, if Daryl was going to tell the truth, he’d say it was this just to see if Rick would say it was that. Mostly, Rick never disappointed. Something inside the former sheriff made it impossible for him to back down from a confrontation, no matter how small. 

A while back Rick tried to let things go. He removed himself from the decision making process when they were living in the prison after Woodbury. For a short time it had worked. And then that crazy fuck, the Governor, came back and blew their little paradise all to hell. Rick tried his damnedest that day to find a peaceful solution, but when push came to shove he’d gone down swinging. They all had. Nothing else they could do.

Daryl wasn’t sure what happened in the time after that when they all were separated; Rick and Carl seemed closer than they had been before but Daryl could see that something had gone on between them. Neither father, nor son talked about it much, but from the bits and pieces he was able to cobble together it wasn’t nothing good.

Now, as the days passed in relative calm and quiet, Daryl sometimes found himself spoiling for a fight. Maybe he’d gotten used to the chaos growing up. The mayhem of just surviving. God knows it had surrounded him what with the pitched battles he’d watched his mom and dad wage against one another, not to mention the beatings he’d taken from his old man and from Merle. Seems like some days a person couldn’t take a breath right before a fist would come down and try to teach ‘em a lesson. Only lesson he ever learned was that sometimes blood wasn’t thicker than water—just because people were related, didn’t make them a family.

This morning he’d said one thing, Rick had said another and before they knew it the glaring had begun, chests were puffing and they both had to take a step back. It was dead quiet in the room, just the sound of harsh breathing and water dripping from the overflowing gutter outside. Daryl watched Rick’s face twist on a sour memory as his fist clenched. Made Daryl brace himself for the blow that would follow. 

Instead Rick turned and grabbed for the door then stopped, shoulders rising and falling on a deep breath, and with one hand on the doorknob he turned back and said, “We create ourselves.”

He repeated his words, voice resolute, almost as if trying to convince himself, and then left the room with a small smile, closing the door gently behind him.

Through the grimy window, Daryl watched Rick walk away. It wasn’t long before a similar grin flicked across his own face and the tension slid out of his body like fast moving water over smooth river rock. He slid a chair over to the kitchen table he’d commandeered, surveyed all the items strewn around. Had everything he needed. Blowing out a deep breath, he got busy making some new arrows. 

It was good to know that life didn’t always have to knock you down.  


###


End file.
